Admittedly, I’m a bit of a Bioshock enthusiast. One might even say an apologist. The first game might be my favorite single-player gaming experience ever. The second game was a step down, but a step down from Fantastically Amazing is what? Merely “excellent”? Sure the multi-player might have been “pandering” but who cares? Finding a Big Daddy suit in a free-for-all and wreaking havoc is damn near the definition of good times. And the attempts to shoehorn Sofia Lamb’s presence into the existing Bioshock story wasn’t terribly convincing, nor was she nearly as captivating as Andrew Ryan (or even some of the lackeys she sends to impede your progress), but she was interesting enough. And the tweeks to the combat gameplay made it even more fun than it already was to shoot bees at people with one hand while firing a machine gun at them with the other.

I say all of this because, ok, I’m probably not going to have a terribly impartial opinion about Bioshock: Infinite. Suffice to say, I loved it. As much as the original? Not quite. More than part 2? Definitely. So much that nitpicking about exactly how much I loved it compared to the previous installments is an exercise in pointless pedantry? Absolutely. Infinite is a gem.

Some further thoughts, now that I’ve played through it twice (spoilers ahoy!):

Columbia isn’t quite as fun to visit and explore as Rapture, but I think its in-game origin and mythology is the more intriguing of the two cities. The idea of Columbia roaming the skies, potentially haunting the present, past and future (not to mention multiple realities), is as scary as actually being in the ruin of Rapture, beneath untold fathoms of an ocean waiting for the first opportunity to crush you. But the full nightmare of Columbia’s presence isn’t something that immediately translates to the game the way it did for Rapture…

Except for in the visit to the bad future that takes place after Elizabeth is whisked away by Songbird. That whole sequence is brilliant and eerie. First and foremost, the idea of entering a blinding whiteout and emerging from it in a future where you’ve failed to prevent a massive catastrophe is creepy by itself, and you get the immediate impression once you come out of the white out that you’ve entered a reality where something went wrong. That “something” is Elizabeth. Various tears and recordings let you know how her mind was twisted by years of disappointment and despondence as Booker failed to come to her rescue. The masked weirdos and the “boys of silence” are notably odd villains who give off some of that creepiness that the Splicers and Little Sisters gave off in Rapture. When you finally meet the aged Elizabeth and she lets you see Booker’s nightmare come true–New York City being attacked by Columbia, drowing in flames as though it were “the Sodom below” that Comstock often referenced–it’s an arresting and harrowing sight. I hope the DLC provides an opportunity to explore this version of Columbia at least a little more.

Yes, I had a dignified but still seismic fan-gasm when Rapture made its cameo appearance.

There’s been debate about the game’s socio-political / religious “statements.” Are they profound? Are they reductive? Are they gratutious? I guess I never put that much stock into any of Bioshock’s “statements.” Ryan’s Objectivism, Lamb’s utilitarianism, and now Comstock’s exceptionalism and patriotism run amuck. I see all of these as devices, not anything majorly critical of the stories themselves. I don’t really see anything in the Bioshock series as particularly offensive, nor philosophically groundbreaking. Any “statements” made in Infinite pretty much boil down to “racism, jingoism, persecution and extremism are all bad.” But all of these things really just operate in service of the story and properly fleshing out the environment. As a writer, I dig that part of it far more than any attempts at preaching things that I’d wager most reasonable people probably already believe, if that’s what’s even being attempted.

The lack of a proper battle against Songbird is a bit disappointing. But after you show him destroying airships literally with one fell swoop, it might have been hard to convincingly show how Booker could have taken him on.

I pretty much abused the hell out of the “Murder of Crows” vigor during combat, followed by Shock Jock, and then Possession. Didn’t have much use for the rest. But I got a kick out of the variety of firearms. So on the scorecard compared to the previous games in the series, Infinite gets an “L” in the left-handed-weapons column, but a “W” in the right-handed-weapons column.

All right, the ending didn’t completely work for me in any literal sense. Thematically and emotionally, though, I thought it was terrific. If you’re looking for logical consistency, then this has about as much of that going for it as most other works of fiction simultaneously dabbling in alternate history, alternate realities, quantum immortalityand time travel.

To the minds and muscle behind the game, first of all, bravo. Seriously, brilliant work. Now get on those DLC’s. I need more.

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People say things like, “The rule is that you never show the devil.” I’ve heard that. An actress lectured me on that once. But if you have a good-looking devil, and it looks convincing—well, yes, you show it! You kidding? It’ll scare the shit out of the audience. If you have a stupid devil, then you don’t show it.